1. Technical Field
The technical field relates to an image processing apparatus for controlling reproduction of an image file based on a management file and an image processing apparatus for generating the management file.
2. Related Art
Imaging apparatuses such as a digital camera are widely prevalent these days. The imaging apparatus can record a still image and a moving image in various formats to a recording medium such as a memory card. For example, a digital camera can record not only a still image but also a moving image defined by AVCHD (Advanced Video Codec High Definition) standard.
In some specifications for moving image recording such as AVCHD standard, a stream file (moving image file) and a navigation file (management file) are recorded. The stream file includes a main body of a moving image. The navigation file includes supplementary information of the moving image. For example, according to the AVCHD standard, an extension information region is provided in the navigation file. Recording conditions with which a moving image has been taken are recorded to the extension information region.
On the other hand, when a recorded moving image is reproduced, it is desired to reproduce the moving image in a manner suitable for the characteristics of a moving image reproduction apparatus. JP2004-254133A is a prior art document for realizing this demand. JP2004-254133A provides a moving image reproduction system for sending a moving image from an image transmission apparatus to a moving image reproduction apparatus according to settings of display size, display range, image quality, color component, and frame rate of the moving image reproduction apparatus.
A moving image recording/reproduction apparatus has been developed, which records information about a shutter speed and an aperture for shooting of a moving image in the same manner as recording of Exit information of a still image, so that the recorded information can be used as shooting information for reproduction and editing.
In the moving image reproduction system as described in JP2004-254133A, it is not considered that reproduction conditions are moved when a moving image file is moved to another apparatus or another recording medium, thus resulting in inconvenience for the user. In a moving image recording/reproduction apparatus which records shooting information, the recorded shooting information alone is often insufficient to realize reproduction desired by a user, and the user is dissatisfied with the settings of the reproduction conditions. For example, with only the shooting information, it is difficult to reflect a desire of a user to enlarge only a particular subject only for a particular period for moving image reproduction.
As an example of a method for reflecting a user's desire about reproduction, there is a method for editing a stream file to reflect the user's desire and thereafter restructuring the stream file by re-encoding the stream file. However, for the AVCHD standard, a high computing performance is necessary to restructure the stream file, and it takes too much time and large load for a CPU used in an embedded device to restructure the stream file.
When the stream file is edited as well as restructured, one stream file is generated per one editing. Therefore, when the stream file is edited multiple times with different reproduction conditions, multiple stream files are generated, which requires a large storage capacity of the recording medium.